Great. Cats were supposed to make me calm and help my blood pressure, and now they help make me crazy?

Seriously, do you get the feeling that scientists always contradict each other, and you are going to die anyway? Vitamin D, or not. Coffee, or tea. Global warming or ice age. Vaccines, or not. The food pyramid, or not. Drive, or fly. Bacon, or nitrates. Fish, or mercury.

The list is pretty near endless. I'm just going to do what I like and enjoy life.

Is that a symptom of schizophrenia? Or just my normal paranoia?

Sounds to me that based on this, schizophrenia is an autoimmune disease of the brain triggered by molecular mimicry with those pathogens. If so, then perhaps dietary changes that help reduce systemic inflammation, like eliminating wheat, fructose, and PUFAs while going on a ketogenic diet may help these people. Of course, this suggestion will be shot down by people needlessly worried about saturated fat and heart disease from such a strict, low carb diet.

This isn't a new idea. For several years, scientists have hypothesized that certain viruses may cause mental diseases and disorders such as schizophrenia and Parkinsons.
Personally I think we haven't even begun to scratch the surface on how pathogens affect our bodies. We know that they can cause our lungs to collapse and our kidneys to fail, so is it really that big of a leap to think they may damage our neurons?

@Tony
It wouldn't surprise me. I've read articles that said some people were helped by changes in diet and supplements. Not cured, but symptoms improved.

I've also heard that low carb helps bi-polar, and I heard that from several people with bipolar.

If it's like Type 1 diabetes or some other autoimmune diseases, the vulnerability is genetic but there is an apparent viral trigger. My aunt had Type 1, her daughter developed Celiac, her granddaughter developed Type 1 diabetes.

Another Type 1 that I know of has a daughter that got Hashimotos, both their diseases developed about six months after they had the same virus.

Another reason low carb or ketogenic diets help with brain function may be the same reason some people with intractable seizures, not helped by drugs, are helped on the ketogenic diet. The brain simply functions better on fuel from fat.

Half of me says this is true, but the other half says it is not true. I hear both voices.

Its hardly an impossibility, our brain does not reside in some mysteriously immune and untouchable place away from the rest of our vulnerable flesh and bone. Why shouldn't it be that certain forms of illness can spark such things? This is not to suggest no genetic component is present, only that there may be causetive agents other than the obvious which may contribute to the development of such a mental condition.

One of the books Miss Alkon recommended explored this very subject. I believe it was:

Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler rose, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend.

Amy do you know this interesting little fact: nobody born blind has ever developed schizophrenia.

On a personal note: 1. I went off the low carb diet and I immediatly felt depressed (I'm bipolar and allergic to gluten).
2. My biological dad is schizophrenic.
3. Over time, with any psychosis there is a physical deterioation of the brain when it does not undergo early treatment. I've always noticed I lost an ability to perform certain functions that were easy before psychosis set in. I'm lucky that Seroquel was able to help me restore 95% of those functions but about 5% have been lost permanently.

> about 5% have been lost permanently.

How could you ever, ever know? Strengths and weakness are not so easily discerned.

Know this: Rationality cowers before stoicism.

Of all the men (and women) I ever met across five (& counting) decades –which includes some pretty darned fab-yoo-liss people– there was only one who, during the eye contact and handshake, really had me thinking "this guy's been kissed on the forehead by God". He was probably the last man in history to change our expectations of a particular musical instrument (rather than a mere synthesizer). He was a genius fucking angel, and you have to have lived through a period like that to understand what it meant to people. (Sorry to come off like Father Time here, but it's never happened since. We are not talking about Bieber or a Jonas.)

And he seemed to believe, though no one will ever been able to prove it, that a was what gave him his superhuman powers.

Concentrating on what's missing is human nature, but it's nonetheless a horrible way to go. YOU'LL NEVER KNOW.

PS— I maintain that his mental illness came from having fathered two beautiful children by each of two stunning women [who weren't happy about each other]. That shit'll make you crazy.)

Perfectly good comment, munged by a typo: The thought AN INJURY gave him his power.

Crid, Jaco was a brilliant musician, and a very sick puppy of a person. I saw something recently where Joni Mitchell was talking about the time Jaco stole a guitar amp from her. And he wasn't sneaky about it; he told her he was going to steal her amp, he did it right in her face, and then he dared her to do something about it. This in spite of the fact that Roland (it was a Jazz Chorus) almost certainly would have given him a free one for the asking. But no, he had to have Joni's.

I was living in Ft. Lauderdale when Jaco died. (He hit his head on the sidewalk after being thrown out of a bar.) There was an impromptu show at a hotel bar that night with pretty much the entire South Florida music scene -- Pat Metheny, Bruce Hornsby, everybody. And the general feeling was that it was sad but also inevitable. Metheny even mentioned having previously thought about what he'd play on the day that Jaco died.

Point being?

Well if you look at the herpes virus complex you have everything from cold sores, genital herpes (both actually interchangeable for locations ;-) ), chickenpox, shingles. The new theory is that it could be related to causing Alzheimer's disease. (That was news to me.) Read the wiki on how many different forms there are including Herpesviral encephalitis.

So schizophrenia could be something along the lines of an autoimmune disorder from the various diseases/exposure while not actually ever showing symptoms of the disease.

Look at all the drugs that make it past the blood-brain barrier. Let alone meningitis.

"How could you ever, ever know?"

My brain just feels different. No seriously, it does. I lost a complete ability to concentrate pre-meds and I had to retrain myself post meds. And no I'm not talking about concentrating on a boring book I'm talking about being almost catatonic in my inability to process external stimuli. I couldn't pay attention to anything, anytime. That's what finally led me to a doctor. Even the way I see is different, before I felt like I had an unfocused shaky camera as eyes.

Now I feel great, the best I have ever felt in my life. But the last two years I was untreated were really tough on my body and brain.

Well, you should at least consider trying out the bass guitar...

If you weren't feeling well, I'm truly sorry, and am glad you're feeling better now. But who knows what parts of your brain were strengthened by carrying the load in the interim, or what reflexes you have that the rest of us don't.

Crid, no particular point; just a sad story. And yeah, I do play bass.

So do you have to shit on my point? Purp's the one who needs to play bass (or something), fer Chrissake.

Seriously, do you get the feeling that scientists always contradict each other, and you are going to die anyway? Vitamin D, or not. Coffee, or tea. Global warming or ice age. Vaccines, or not. The food pyramid, or not. Drive, or fly. Bacon, or nitrates. Fish, or mercury.

By MarkD
________________________

Well, I like to believe that doctors, at least, weigh their words more carefully before speaking than they did 40-50 years ago, when they were treated like gods and no one, especially women, were supposed to doubt their words. Nowadays, most people are bold enough to question authority - and doctors.

And, thank goodness, schizophrenia and the resulting behavior is no longer blamed on bad parenting! (Yes, this WAS apparently the way things used to be, according to the book written by the mother of murder victim Nancy Spungen.)